The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,211, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,108 on Mar. 6, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cSIMPLIFIED SETTING UP OF A NETWORK OF A SERVER COMPUTER PRELOADED WITH ALL COMPUTER PROGRAMS REQUIRED BY A GROUP OF CLIENT COMPUTERS TO BE CONNECTED INTO NETWORKxe2x80x9d which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
In addition, the following applications are also related to the present invention:
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,559, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,477,436 on Nov. 5, 2002, entitled xe2x80x9cSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATION OF A NETWORK COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,208, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,745 on Jun. 5, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cCONFIGURING COMPUTER NETWORK OPERATIONS BASED UPON THE CORRELATION OF A SEQUENCE OF INTERACTIVE DISPLAY USER ENTRIES APPARENTLY UNRELATED TO COMPUTER OPERATIONSxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,557, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,131 on Jan. 30, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cDATA PROCESSING SYSTEM, METHOD, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR AUTOMATING ACCOUNT CREATION IN A NETWORKxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,293, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, entitled xe2x80x9cCOMPUTER SOFTWARE SYSTEM FOR ELIMINATING OPERATING SYSTEM MULTIPLE LOGINS UNDER REMOTE PROGRAM LOAD WITH NETWORK PROVIDER DYNAMIC LINK LIBRARYxe2x80x9d currently pending.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,210, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,031 on Mar. 27, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cCONFIGURING COMPUTER NETWORK OPERATIONS BASED UPON A SEQUENCE OF INTERACTIVE USER ENTRIES INTO A NETWORK SERVER COMPUTER WITH A ONE TIME ENTRY OF DATA COMMONLY REQUIRED BY MULTIPLE CLIENTSxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,560, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,346 on Jul. 17, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cNETWORK WITH STORAGE OF ALL CLIENT COMPUTER PROGRAMS IN SERVER COMPUTER HAVING CUSTOMIZED CLIENT GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES WITH MAXIMUM SHARING OF STORED PORTIONS OF INTERFACES COMMON TO A PLURALITY OF CLIENTSxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,292, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,779 on Aug. 22, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cSERVER AND COMPUTER NETWORK THAT PERMIT A CLIENT TO BE EASILY INTRODUCED INTO THE COMPUTER NETWORKxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,209, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and thereafter abandoned, entitled xe2x80x9cMETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ALLOWING A USER TO ROVE AMONG VARIOUS CLIENTS IN A NETWORK WHILE MAINTAINING INDIVIDUAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE PREFERENCESxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118.207, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, entitled xe2x80x9cMETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING A PRELOAD IMAGExe2x80x9d currently pending.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,558, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and thereafter abandoned, entitled xe2x80x9cMETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ALLOWING A USER TO ROVE AMONG VARIOUS CLIENTS IN A NETWORK WHILE MAINTAINING INDIVIDUAL HARDWARE PREFERENCESxe2x80x9d.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,555, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, entitled xe2x80x9cAUTOMATIC CLEANUP OF USER DATA IN A NETWORK ENVIRONMENTxe2x80x9d currently pending.
The present patent application is related to Ser. No. 09/118,556, filed on Jul. 17, 1998, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,100 on Aug. 15, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cMETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING AND INITIALIZING THE ADDITION OF A NEW CLIENT MACHINE IN A NETWORKxe2x80x9d.
1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer systems, and more specifically, to methods and apparatuses that create a preload image for the installation of a network and its associated clients:
2. Background of the Present Invention
Computers and their application programs are used in all aspects of business, industry, and academic endeavors. In recent years, there has been a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronic industry. This advance has been further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement with the Internet in recent years.
As a result of the above noted changes, it seems as if virtually all aspects of human productivity in the industrialized world requires human and computer interaction. The computer industry has been a force for bringing about great increases in business industrial productivity. Almost every week brings computer industry advances which promise even further increases in productivity. These advances offer to drive down business and industry costs and increase efficiency in addition to increasing productivity. In addition, the cost of xe2x80x9ccomputer powerxe2x80x9d continues to drop as a result of rapid advances in computer related technologies.
As a result of the above noted advances, many different areas of the computer industry are ripe for additional improvements that can increase efficiency and productivity. For instance, in today""s current environment, resellers are required to generate a preload image for installation of networks. The term preload image, as referred to hereinafter, comprises all of the desired applications and any other software necessary to operate the network.
Unfortunately, as a result of the various licensing agreements between the parties, the reseller typically only has full and complete redistribution rights to some of the required software. These varying distribution rights cause the reseller to create the preload image in two phases. The first phase of the preload image generation contains the software for which the reseller has full and complete redistribution rights. The second phase involves the painstaking manual installation of each component (Application) of the remaining software (i.e. that for which the reseller does not have full and complete redistribution rights) by the reseller or someone hired for this dedicated task.
Installation of the remaining software require, a skilled individual in order to execute each installation program of the remaining applications, and tediously provide information for directing the activity of the installation. The above noted process is frustrating, time consuming, and cost prohibitive.
It would, therefore, be a distinct advantage to have a method and apparatus that would improve the second phase of generating the preload image by merely prompting the reseller to specify the location of the remaining software (i.e. CD ROM) without the numerous prompts. The present invention provides such a method and apparatus.
The present invention is a method and apparatus for generating the second phase (i.e. software for which redistribution rights are limited) of a preload image for networks. The reseller is not required to answer numerous and often repetitive prompts for each application, but merely the location of the desired application.